I came into Writing with 39B with the same goal I came into Writing 39A: to become a better writer. Mastering my writing skill has always been a challenge for me, yet I never give up when I encounter an obstacle; I work diligently to overcome my challenges. I believe I have gradually improved in my writing performance at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), this class has contributed to enhancing my writing and expanding my knowledge. I knew coming in that Writing 39B was a timeconsuming class, but I underestimated the workload and the time dedication it required.
I thought I would be able to dedicate the appropriate number of hours in Writing 39B without any trouble, but I was wrong. Besides taking Writing 39B, I am currently enrolled in Chemistry 1C, Chemistry Laboratory 1LC, Psychology 7A, and Anthropology 2A. Each class requires its equal share of time, but certain classes took a larger portion of my time, such as Writing 39B and Chemistry Laboratory 1LC. Besides being a relatively slow typer (when compared to my peers), I am also a slow thinker, my ideas do not just shoot out of my head–it takes me time to think of what I am going to write.
My work ethic and determination helped me push through the overwhelming times and pressures of meeting deadlines, class work, readings, and projects. I had the option to not do the assignments, turn them late-or ask for an extension, but I wanted to show my determination to complete them on time. I have never missed a single assignment, I have worked really hard to demonstrate that I given all my effort in this class. Thad many nights of little, and as a consequence, I would arrive late or miss class–I would be so exhausted that I would sleep through my alarms.
Nevertheless, I view my adversities in this class on a positive thing because it has pushed me to my limits. Through this class, I have shown that I am capable of managing several tasks at once and that I am ready for the challenges in Writing 390 Briar Rose was a novel I enjoyed reading. In this book, I obtained a view of the Holocaust through a homosexual man’s experience and got introduced to the other significant purposes that fairy tales have; fairy tales go beyond from just telling a moral lesson.
Through Josef Potocki’s narrative, I was informed of the discrimination against Homosexuals during the Holocaust, an experience that sometimes is overshadowed by the Jewish suffering. By reading the novel I learned that gay men had to wear a pink triangle to identify themselves, this information was something new to me. Fairy tales are often labeled to have one purpose–to teach a lesson, but have are other creative functions too. For instance, the fairy tale (Gemma’s fairy tale) in Briar Rose is used to intermediate a hidden message to Gemma’s Granddaughters.
The girls believe it just a different version of the “Sleeping Beauty”, but the story is Gemma’s actual experience she lived during the Holocaust. The rhetorical analysis essay, was the project followed after reading Briar Rose. This project was very challenging for me because I felt the task was very unclear. I intentionally started to work a week ahead in hopes to do well, but it did not result in that way. My goal of to start early was to hopefully end early or use all the additional time to strength my essay.
However, at the last days I ended up writing two newer versions of my essay. I invested a lot of time in my essay, but it still did not turn out the way I wanted. I understand that my work is not the best, there were some improvements. Some of those improvements included better addresses my ideas and connect my topic sentences with my argument. When I got my score back I was a bit frustrated and disappointed, but my drive to do well in the class pushed me to do better in the RIP Project.
The Rhetoric-In-Practice (RIP) was a project I enjoyed doing, I elieve my project’s firm purpose made it less challenging than the rhetorical analysis (RA) Essay to complete. My project was fractured fairy tales of “Hansel and Gretel”, “The Little Red Riding Hood”, and “The Ugly Duckling”“. In my project, I played the role of Rory Madden, a children’s author advertising his new book through his website. I choose to address the issues between technology/social media and children through a fairy tales for two reasons. First, I wanted to touch one a relevant topic for a modern audience and I wanted to communicate the social-cultural problems between technology and children.
During the development of my project, I conducted a good amount of research on my audience, a particularly interesting fact that I learned was that mother below 40 years-old with some type of college education are more likely to read to their children. Initially, I was targeting a somewhat broad group (parents), but afterward I knew that my secondary audience were mothers with a specific age, education level, and income level. I am most proud of selecting the correct fairy tales and pairing them up with the correct message.
For example, at the first glance one might wonder how the “The Ugly Ducking” will address my main message; however, I made the correct changes to convey a message that teaches children about the wrongs of cyber bullying. My mistakes in my rhetorical analysis (RA) essay pushed to pay attention to my decisions as the rhetor to avoid making the same errors. I followed your recommendation to, “… stay in contact with [you] as [l] choose [a] RIP project and sto] make sure [l got] feedback at various stages of the project” to make sure to get a better grade.
I went to your office hours every moment I was free to see what works and what improvements could be made. During one of your office hour, you pinpointed, “[that my] ending (for the “Ugly Duckling” was] a little fast and slick” and that I needed to “down and provide more detail”. I solved the problem by adding dialogue at the end of the story to expand the information and by expanding on the ending details of the tale. I believe I have made significant improvements and have learned a lot through this quarter, this class has given me significant tools that I can later use in my future.
I believe I have improved how to integrate sources into my essays. Looking at the following quote I used in my RA essay, In Briar Rose, Yolen shows the lesson of selflessness through the following passage of the story: “But a voice inside of him said. “We rescue one, they kill one thousand. Still—one is enough”… the nine of them left in the morning, tracking back towards Chelmno, returning out of life to death “(216, 219) there is no context provided–I do not mention who said stated the quote and failed to provide background details.
Additionally, the quote seems to be used as a filler because it does not provide any analysis afterward or explain the significance of having it placed there. Meanwhile, in my RIP Project, I integrate my source the following way, “According to the article Parents, Children. Libraries, and Reading, mothers under the age of 40 with some college education are more likely to read to their children (Miller, Zickuhr, Rainie and Purcell)”. In this example, I paraphrase my source and it provided backup evidence why women are my secondary audience. Additionally, I have improved in targeting a specific audience.
In the past, my audience would have been a very broad and wide audience. I showed my improvement in this area by researching the reading level for third and fourth graders to specifically target my primary audience in my RIP project. To successfully communicate with my primary audience Tused simple words and short sentences, along with a few pictures on the side of the story to guide them through the plot. Before coming into Writing 39B, I did not know what the word convention meant. In your class, we discussed and looked at the common fairy tale conventions.
I showed my understanding of fairy tale conventions by using a happy ending, good characters and evil characters in my fractured fairy tales. An area where I have to improve is my proofreading. I tend to look over simple mistakes. At the begin of the class, I would briefly look over my work and not ask for a peer to review it. However, after receiving my RA score back, I learned the importance of proofreading and revising the hard way. Although this is one of my weaknesses, I had tried to fix it. For example, before submitting my RIP essay I asked two of my friends to look over it.
There were other flaws in my RA essay. For example, I noticed that my ideas in my RA essay were permeated all throughout the essay and that I did not elaborate on them to add strength to my essay. These past ten weeks have given me pivotal tools and knowledge to become a better writer. I strongly believe I am ready for a bigger challenge and ready to move on to Writing 39C. I understand that there is always room for improvement, but for in these ten weeks I have made strong progress. I am glad to have been part of this class, and I hope my work and effort was visible.